Date: Feb-Mar 2017
White Crystals After Crushing
MEMBERS ONLYI’ve had a similar experience — both with having to pick gapes at sub-optimal times (curse you, weather!) as well as having that rough white residue on my crush equipment. The residue, which resembles a thicker than normal layer of hard water scale, comes from the grapes themselves. From what I understand, it’s simply an
Malolactic Fermentation Timing
MEMBERS ONLYI’m a little old school when it comes to malolactic fermentation, but it’s always served me well. There are some winemakers who try to get a jump on malolactic (ML) completion and co-inoculate with ML bacteria and wine yeast at the same time, but in my mind this is a little risky. You see, yeast
Tartrate Crystals, Blending Stuck Wine, Malolactic Timing
MEMBERS ONLYIn my experience, doing a traditional cold stability where you chill the wine down and then filter off any precipitation won’t shift the acidity enough to notice it in the taste.
A One-Vine Vineyard
FREEAfter receiving little faith from his family, a man sets out to prove that he can make wine from the sole vine growing on their property. And so started a new hobby.
Post-Fermentation Wine Adjustments
MEMBERS ONLYOur job isn’t finished when fermentation is over. With many wines, especially reds, you may want to go ahead and do a malolactic (ML) fermentation as well. And during cellaring you need to keep your sulfite program up to avoid oxidation and spoilage. Along the way, though, you may want to make some other significant
Brettanomyces
MEMBERS ONLYIf you’ve ever tasted a wine that had a funky “barnyard” quality to it, you already know what Brettanomyces can do. Find out how to prevent it in your home winery.
2017 Wine Label Contest Winners
FREEHere are the winners from the 2017 Label Contest.
Offbeat Reds
MEMBERS ONLYGetting sick of the same old Cab? Try a red wine that’s more out of the mainstream, like Carménère, Charbono, Dolcetto, Montepulciano, or Tinta Cão.
Year in a Life of a Wine: Part III (Testing & Adjusting)
MEMBERS ONLYIn the third installment of our year-long series about how homemade wine is made using home-grown grapes in Upstate New York, we check in on batches of red, white, and rosé wines happily fermenting away.
Make Your Own Wine Vinegar
FREEWinemakers spend a lot of time and effort preventing acetic acid from ruining good wine. But to make wine vinegar, Acetobacter is actually your friend. Find out how to make some wine vinegar at home.
Touriga Nacional
MEMBERS ONLYI was a late bloomer when it came to seeing the world. It wasn’t until 10 years ago that I had the opportunity to start traveling internationally. Despite growing up in an airline family, and the reduced fare traveling privileges that come with it, this airline only flew domestically when I was eligible. But with
Tartrate Crystals
MEMBERS ONLYI always think that trying to precipitate out some of the worst crystals that could form is a good idea, especially for any wine that may be sold commercially or entered into competitions. You probably won’t change your pH/titratable acididty (TA) balance that much. In my experience, doing a traditional cold stability where you chill
Controlling Brettanomyces: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYBrettanomyces has been known to take hold of wines —and entire wineries — destroying countless hours of hard work that was put into creating these wines. However, there are also regions in the world such as Bordeaux where Brett is an accepted characteristic found in many of the finest wines. So what do the pros
Protein Stabilization
FREEGet hot tips for protein stabilization.
Monitoring & Adjusting pH
FREEpH greatly affects the taste of wine as well as microbial stability. It can make the difference between drinking the wine or pouring it down the drain. Make sure you know when it should be analyzed and make the necessary adjustments.
Blending Stuck Wine
MEMBERS ONLYThat’s too bad that you had some stuck fermentations. It’s probable that your yeast died out due to alcohol toxicity resulting from those high brixes. Next time make sure you’re adding enough water and feeding enough nutrients to create as healthy of a fermentation environment as you can. Before next harvest you may want to